1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an automatic noodle cooker and in more particular to an automatic noodle cooker which cooks long thin food products made of raw noodles.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are many food products which use noodles as the main ingredient, such as spaghetti, macaroni, udon, soba, and somen, however, to make these food products, after the noodle material has been made into flour, the material is made long and thin according to the specifications of each respective food product, and then these long thin noodles are cooked in hot water to produce the final food product.
Normally, in order to obtain the final food product, a noodle cooker with a hot water boiler is used. FIG. 6 shows an example of the construction of a hot water boiler used in a prior noodle cooker. The hot water boiler 16 comprises a cylindrical container 30 which has a bottom 30A, and at one end of the space 32 is a water supply opening 34 and there is also a heater 33. There is also a hot-water supply pipe 35, hot-water supply valve 36, and cover 17, and hot water flows into the central hollow section 37 of the cylindrical container 30 and is stored. This central hollow section 37 functions as the processing section for cooking the long thin ingredients.
With this kind of construction, the water supplied to the space 32 through the water supply opening 34 is heated by the heater 33 until it is hot, and then this hot water flows through the hot-water supply pipe 35 to the central hollow section 37, with the amount of hot water being regulated by the hot-water supply valve 36. When the aforementioned long thin ingredients to be processed such a as spaghetti are supplied to the central hollow section 37, they are cooked by the hot water. This water is heated by the heater 33 and is 100.degree. C. or lower.
As the amount of hot water flowing to the central hollow section increases, the amount of hot water in the space 32 decreases and this is detected by a liquid-level sensor (not shown in the figure) and so more water is supplied to the hot water boiler 16 through the water supply opening 34. The water is heated by the heater 33 in the same manner as described above and then supplied to the central hollow section 37 together with the long thin ingredients which are to be processed.
In this type of prior noodle cooker, equipped with a hot water boiler, there is a problem that as the hot water in the space decreases, more water is supplied and heating is performed again, however, when water is supplied, the temperature of the hot water lowers and so it takes time for it to be heated. Therefore there is a delay in supplying hot water to the processing section, and the efficiency of processing the long thin ingredients is lowered and interrupts the work.